Woodblock-printed. 4, 2, 19; 26 folding leaves. One juan in 2 vols. 32mo (147 x 100 mm.), new wrappers, new stitching. [China]: Preface dated gengyin [1650?].

A fascinating pocket-sized manual for identifying, feeding, and handling quails for fights, which was a popular pastime in premodern China. We find this title only in the Shikaitang 世楷堂 reprints of the Zhaodai congshu 昭代叢書 anthology in WorldCat (accession nos. 1478081079 and 35867803, dated 1849 and 1876 respectively), with copies at Academia Sinica, UChicago, and Harvard.

The once-popular practice of raising quails for spectacular fights, widespread for centuries among Chinese city dwellers, did not... More